Known to the prior art are apparatus for continuous metal casting (cf, the book "Horizontal Continuous Casting of Nonferrous Metals and Alloys" by Shatagin O. A., Sladkoshteev V. P., et al, Moscow, Publishing House "Metallurgia", 1974, p.p. 27-28, 31-33, in Russian). In continuous metal casting plants castings are withdrawn from the mould with the aid of roller racks or with the aid of shoes pressed against the casting to be withdrawn.
Construction of such apparatus fails to provide a precise control over the process of withdrawing the casting from the mould, i.e., fails to provide a rapid and reliable withdrawal of the casting from the mould.
Known to the prior art is an apparatus (cf. Great Britain Pat. No. 1,522,110, Int. Cl. B 22 d 11/28, 1978) for withdrawing a casting from the mould, comprising a movable housing with movable shoes, each of which is associated with the housing through an intermediate rod. The rod is preloaded by springs and with respect to the housing may move parallel to the axis of the casing. For adjusting the force of the springs, provision is made for a ring. When the apparatus housing is moved in the direction of movement of the casting the housing causes wedges secured in the housing to jam rollers. As a result, the rollers press the shoes against the casting and the latter is gripped thereby. When the housing is moved in the reverse direction the rollers are released under the action of the springs and the shoes are free to return to the initial position. Thereafter the apparatus is ready to repeat the cycle of step-by-step withdrawal of the casting.
Construction of the apparatus provides only a small contacting area between the shoes and the casting, has a complicated kinematics of the shoes, fails to ensure a precise control over the casing withdrawal process and also to combine the performance of two functions: withdrawal and intensive cooling of the casting.